


Crumblin' Down

by firefly124



Series: 2019 Advent Drabbles [10]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Community: adventdrabbles, M/M, spoilers through SPN 15x07
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:00:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21759670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefly124/pseuds/firefly124
Summary: Dean’s feeling nostalgic. Cas is mystified. Sam is oblivious.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Series: 2019 Advent Drabbles [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560085
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Crumblin' Down

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [AdventDrabbles](https://adventdrabbles.dreamwidth.org/) community on Dreamwidth to the prompt [gingerbread house](https://imgur.com/UDXN42U). Title is courtesy of John Mellencamp's song by the same name. Huge thanks to [Shikaro](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shikaro/) for alpha- and beta-reading and helping me get unstuck!.

Now that he knew his mother had never baked, Dean wondered if they’d had these kinds of gingerbread house kits when he was a kid. He definitely remembered helping her “glue” gumdrops onto one. Why that had translated into picking one up to make at home was beyond him.

You’d think that, what with it being a kit and all, it’d just glue together nice and easy. Half the icing seemed determined to end up just dripping down the side, though, and he was pretty sure one of the walls was going to collapse if he looked at it wrong. And people did this with little kids?

“What is the goal of this activity?”

“Jesus, Cas!” Dean scrambled to catch the candies he’d knocked over before they could roll off the table and onto the floor. “Warn a guy, why don’t you?”

Cas looked completely unimpressed by Dean’s outburst, but still appeared curious about the gingerbread house.

“It’s just a stupid tradition,” Dean muttered. “’Sfor little kids. Dunno why I bothered.”

“When was the last time you engaged in this tradition?” Cas had his forehead scrunched up like he was trying to solve some big mystery.

“I dunno,” Dean said. “When I was three, maybe?”

He did know, though. His mom and dad had been explaining that Mom had a baby in her belly that was going to be Dean’s little brother or sister. Somehow, that had gotten all mixed up with the candy house, and he thought the baby was going to live in there, so he’d cried when they broke it apart to eat.

Cas seemed to realize that, per usual, Dean was full of shit, but he didn’t call him on it.

“From the last Christmas you had with your mother,” Cas said instead. He didn’t add that this was going to be the first Christmas since losing her again. He didn’t have to.

“Yeah, well.” Dean made another attempt at getting the chimney to stay put. For a second, it looked like it might, and he leaned back to look at his handiwork. Just as he could feel a grin trying to break through, one of the four sides of the chimney slowly started to slide down the roof until it caught on a piece of chocolate. Dean just shook his head.

“Is the goal to create a perfect structure?” Cas asked. “Or is it sufficient to assemble as much sugar in one location as possible and then eat it?”

Dean frowned at the ramshackle creation. “I guess eventually the point is to eat it.”

Cas reached over and broke off a corner of the roof and popped it into his mouth.

“So, what kind of molecules does it taste like?” Dean asked.

“Sugar.” Cas licked a bit of icing from his thumb. “I believe Gabriel would have enjoyed this immensely.”

Shit, that brought up a whole bunch of stuff Dean had never thought to ask.

“Is there anything that you angels like to do for Christmas?” Dean asked. Was there anything Cas was missing? Could they even try to do whatever it was here? “I mean, Gabriel was even kind of involved with it, right?”

“He was.” Cas gave a small smile. “To answer your question, however, no. Angels do not particularly celebrate the anniversary of the Nativity. And if we did, it would fall during your spring.”

“Huh.” In comparison to some of the shit they’d learned in the last year, that was barely enough to raise an eyebrow. Dean imagined there’d be some folks that would get pretty worked up over it, though.

Cas was still right there, barely an arm’s length away. Dean felt as though he couldn’t look away from him. There was something he should say, though he wasn’t sure what. They might not be good, yet, but it felt like some of the not-good was starting to crumble away. Just when he thought he might have found the words, a door slammed.

“It sounds as though Sam and Eileen have returned,” Cas said.

“Right.” Dean looked down at his creation again. It was leaning over to the right now like it was going to just topple over. “Maybe I’ll just break this up like cookies and they can help eat them.”

“I believe they would probably enjoy that.”

They both reached for the house at the same time, and Cas’ hand brushed against Dean’s on its way to remove another part of the roof. Dean shuddered and was about to change course to break off the other half. Before he could talk himself out of it, though, he turned and pressed a kiss to Cas’ lips.

It was quick. It was amazing. And now Cas was staring like Dean had just sprouted antlers or something. Maybe he had, because he sure felt like a deer caught in headlights.

“Dean, what…?” Cas started.

“Hey guys, you’re back,” Sam said as he came into the kitchen. He looked like he’d just taken a shower. How had he had time for that? “What’cha making?”

Dean took a step back. 

“Gingerbread, huh? Cool. Hey, Eileen.” Sam turned and signed something to her where she was standing in the doorway. She signed something back. “Nah, come on and have some. Then you can teach me the sign for gingerbread so I don’t have to fingerspell it all the time.”

“Is that something that really comes up all the time?” she asked. She did come in and grab a piece of the chimney though.

Cas hadn’t moved and was still staring at Dean. After all these years, Dean would have thought he could read the son of a bitch, but no. He had no idea what was going on in Cas’ head. 

One thing he was sure of. They were going to have to deal with this later.


End file.
